Beauty and the Bo
by Wenny T
Summary: AU. Once upon a time, there lived a prince eager to not be a prince, a girl eager to be a fairy -or a princess, or both- and a cockatrice eager to be lord of all creatures that walked the earth. In response to Starlight Rose's Fairytale Challenge.
1. Prologue

**BEAUTY AND THE BO**

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**an answer to the KYOKO'S FAIRYTALE CHALLENGE issued by Starlight Rose  
**

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_Prologue_

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...

The second time His Imperial Highness Hizuri Kuon met Mogami Kyoko, she was all puffed up with maidenly indignation. Even her sopping, crumpled muddy skirts quivered with rage. Her furious shrieks assaulted his ears while he noted in absent-minded amusement that in her wrath, her resemblance to his beloved pet cockatrice, Bo, was uncanny.

The third time Hizuri Kuon met Mogami Kyoko, she performed an extremely rude gesture at him while refusing to accept his apologies and monetary compensation for his accidental -truly it was!- shove that ruined her then newly bought dress. The fact that the apologies were accompanied by barely restrained laughter aided much in her refusal. She did not realize that his hilarity did not stem from mockery, but from a mental image of his avian pet wearing her gown and facial expression while turning his beak up in haughty disdain at freshly-dug-up worms presented as an apology gift.

Kyoko thought it was a matter of principle and honour, and let Kuon knew in no uncertain terms that a person should always look in the direction where he is going and not back at their partner in conversation because if he wanted to have a conversation with said partner, he should be walking next to the latter and not in front to result in accidents that could have being avoided and a crick in the neck from all that looking back, and did he not understand that she was offended because he had _laughed_ when he realized his bumping into her had sent her backwards into that slimy mud and ruined her happiness of wearing the new dress that she had saved for with all her heart and all three months of wages, and not _merely_ because she was _upset_ that _her new dress was ruined_?

Kuon thought she was the most adorable thing he had ever seen, and was sorry that she did not recall the very first time when they had met. He did, though. He recognized her the instant those golden eyes widen in outraged consternation from her upturned face, even amongst all that mud. He doubted anyone else could look as enchanting with black mud splattered on their faces. He had no idea how she managed it, but she just did.

Yashiro, Kuon's reluctant partner in conversation and the death of Kyoko's new gown, thought the entire incident extremely uproarious because the girl did not appear to recognize the Crown Prince at all, and as a result the Crown Prince seemed to have fallen half in love with her, just from two little encounters.

Bo thought sourly of the lovely worms his master used to bring to him, back when the stupid human was actually living in the stupid palace. He squawked crossly at the bits of lace adorning his feet and tried to edge away from the crazy human looping some sort of noose about his neck again. What fresh hell was this? He was born a proud cockatrice, not a lowly canine! A creature with legends to his name should not be subjected to such indignities!

Juliena thought wistfully of her beautiful son as she finished tying the lace ribbon into a perfect bow beneath his pet chicken's chin, careful not to look the creature straight in the eye. She missed him so, but he did say that he _had_ to leave to find his true self, away from her darling but idiotic husband's suffocating love. Oh well, she could spoil his pet chicken in his stead if she could not have him to mother. It was the least she could do. Oh, how she missed her baby boy.

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A/N: Skip Beat, 'Beauty and the Beast', and the concept of a cockatrice do not belong to me. Written in answer to Starlight Rose's challenge.

The **Kyoko's Fairytale Challenge**.

Rules:

1) Take a classic fairytale and adapt it for Skip Beat.

2) Because it's **Kyoko's** Fairytale Challenge, there must be at least one of these three: a fairy, a prince, or a princess

3) Main pairing should be Ren/Kyoko (because S.R. really can't read any other pairing).

4) Must start with Once upon a time...or A long, long time ago...and end with happily ever after.


	2. Chapter ONE

**BEAUTY AND THE BO**

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**ONE**

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Yashiro Yukihito was not having a good day, despite it being only half-past eleven in the morning. It felt as though he had been awake for an age.

First, the Crown Prince only had half a slice of bread, three cups of steaming black coffee and none of the sausages the proprietor had assured them were the finest in this town. He had coaxed and threatened and nagged for His Imperial Highness to eat more, but all to no avail. The Empress would have his head when they returned, at the miniscule rate her son was eating. And now, _this_!

"Your I- Kuo-" The glare triggered by his honest mistake had the hair on his head sizzling. He could feel it! Nevertheless, he forged on. This was crucial to the happiness of the Emperor and Empress, and Yashiro was not a man who shirked his obligations. He owed it to them, and also the Archduke Takarada Lory, but that was a story for another day. He _would_ do this. He could not fail. He must not fail. "I mean, _Ren_. Yes, Ren. Don't you think it's time to return to the pal-"

Another glare, more venomous than the last, and this time Yashiro swore he could practically hear his skin frying. Retreat, his brain screamed, while his heart urged him to continue, for it was his duty. He took a deep breath. "To, um, You-Know-Where! Don't you think it's _time_ to return to You-Know-Where?"

The glare subsided, only to be replaced by a beatific smile that had Yashiro flinching at the first glimpse of even, white teeth, his previous bravado already forgotten. "Whoa," he cried, arms wind-milling as his reflexive action carried his lanky body halfway over the railing that they were leaning on. He caught a bird's eye view of the busy Main Street below him before a hand upon his upper arm saved him from a rather gruesome fate.

"Why, Yukihito," Hizuri Kuon's casual tone was belied by the too-tight grip he had on the other man's bicep. "I don't know what you're talking about."

And with that, Yashiro gave up on his daily attempt to persuade the Crown Prince to return to the Imperial Palace. Oh well. At least he tried. He even braved the Glare and the Smile. Clearing his throat, he searched for a less volatile conversation topic, while breathing a mental sigh of relief as Kuo-no, _Ren_, unclenched his fist from around Yashiro's arm with deliberate slowness.

_Keep talking about my return and you'll feel this around your neck until you feel nothing at all,_ the gesture promised. Yashiro gulped. He was loyal to the Emperor, but not _that_ loyal.

"Ah, so R-Ren, are we going to look for... What we came to look for, today?" He could see that Kuo- Ren- damnation, he would call the man whatever he wanted in his own head, royal whims bedamned! Kuon, yes, _Kuon_ it was; he could see Kuon turning abruptly to face him, from the corner of his eye. He kept his gaze on the bustling street below them with steadfast doggedness. No way was he making eye contact again. Too risky; his heart could not take the stress. The Crown Prince's smiles were lethal to him, and not in the good way they affect the ladies-in-waiting back at court, either. No, usually they left Yashiro with an almost all-consuming urge to perform immediate suicide. Anything to get away from all the repressed anger barely contained beneath that eerily complacent smile.

And the amount of anger getting repressed was getting exponentially large ever since That Incident nearly a year ago. Not for the first time, he cursed the fact that they in their disbelief, had allowed the witch to get away after casting the curse. Pun not intended.

"Why the sudden interest in our itinerary, Yukihito?"

"Well, that is, ahem," he edged; he could not very well say that he wanted to know Kuon's progress so that he would at least have an estimate of their return date, could he? But the envoy pigeons that the Emperor used for his letters were getting pesky. That one from yesterday almost took his eye out when he sneaked down to the barn to send his daily report. Who knew pigeons were so energetic? They usually just waddled about looking all... _pigeon-y_ back at the palace.

"_Yukihito_?" He shivered involuntarily at the overly saccharine tone."Ah, I'm sorry, R-Ren, I was thinking- Heh, I was thinking, if you aren't going to take a look around... Places today, I'll pay a visit to the Darumaya inn. Miss Kyoko told me that the chef has a fish special for lunch." He only realised what he said when the words flew out of his mouth, and brought his teeth together with an audible snap. It was too late though. The slight stiffening of Kuon's spine was testament to that.

Stupid, stupid! He cursed himself. In trying to evade the landmine before him, he had stepped backwards without looking; into _another_ landmine, one even more liable to blow at the slightest touch.

Thus, it was an understatement to label the emotion he felt as surprise, when Kuon, instead of flaying him alive with verbal barbs, turned and sat back at the table they had both vacated not long after breakfast, in favour of standing at the railing to chat. It was even more astonishing when the Crown Prince propped his chin up on a fist carelessly, all of his customary grace having seemingly deserted him. The words that came out from his mouth, however, were anything but. "Since when were you on such intimate terms with Miss Mogami, Yukihito?"

_Danger! Danger! Alert! Alert! Beware! Back away slowly with both hands raised in the air! Danger! Alert!_ Yashiro gulped and stammered, "Ah, n-not intimate p-p-p-precisely, it's just t-that she t-told me that s-since she is y-younger than me, it f-feels weird when I call her M-miss M-Mogami. S-she insisted that I called her M-miss K-Kyoko."

Kuon raised a lazy eyebrow. "I didn't hear her say that to you that last time, when we ah, bumped her."

Yashiro was sorry that he did not think to leave a formal will before they left the palace. Death was breathing hotly down his neck, panting with vulgar excitement at the thought of fresh blood. "I-I went there a few days ago, again, to ask if there w-was any way w-we could offer r-recompense."

"Oh." The chair opposite him flew backwards with a screech, and Yashiro squeezed his eyes shut and starting praying for a swift and painless death. Normally, he would not call himself a coward, but when it came to the Crown Prince-

"Are you planning on napping in your seat, Yukihito?" He looked up with no little surprise to see Kuon looming over him and grinning in wicked amusement. "I thought we were going to the Darumaya? But of course, the breakfast was pretty heavy. If you'd rather nap-"

"Ah, yes, I mean, no, of c-course. Let's go." He nodded and hurried after the other, whose long legs were already carrying him away.

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Normally Kuon would not say he was a cruel man, but sometimes it was just so _fun _to tease -not torment- Yukihito, and watch the normally unflappable man quake and quiver in his neatly tied boots. He forced back a chuckle and schooled his face into a neutral mask to further unnerve the shorter man beside him. Yukihito was most jumpy when he could not read Kuon's moods.

Mogami Kyoko. He sighed at the thought of her. He seemed to get into the girl, no, the young woman's black books effortlessly now. How different it was, how different _they_ were, compared to years ago. Then he seemed to be able to get her to smile while hardly trying. And now? Well, he was trying now, but all he seemed to earn were scowls and reprimands.

She was adorable when enraged though, he mused. The chubby face with its promise of beauty had matured, slimmed into a delicate almond shape. The hair that he remembered as being contained in messy little pig tails had lengthened. She had it pinned up the two times they met recently, but he would guess that they fell to her elbows when left unbound. Even the tubby little body had grown; she came up to his shoulder now, instead of merely to his waist like all those years ago. Her hands were no longer the tiny, soft hands of a child, slipping easily into his. The one time he had held her hand, her un-gloved hand last week to help her up, he discovered that she had calluses lining her palm. They were the hands of a hardworking girl. Only her golden eyes remained the same, but instead of crinkling up in pleasure at the sight of him, they either widened in maidenly outrage or narrowed in righteous displeasure.

He wanted to see them smile at him again, those clear amber eyes. He wanted to hold her hand in his, for real, like how they did when-

_**"You!"**_ The irate screech brought him out from his contemplations, and Kuon realised with a start that the object of his reverie was standing right before him, golden eyes slitting in fury. He tore his gaze away from hers to meet Yashiro's. His aide's eyes were wide with panic, and Kuon noted absently the sign next to the other man proclaimed in proud cursive script, "The Darumaya". They had reached their destination without him realising; trapped so deeply in his thoughts that he was.

"What the hell are _you_ doing here? Come to laugh at me again?" He turned back to assure her that he meant no harm, to explain to her that he was laughing at his stupidly immature thoughts that time on the street, not at her, _never_ at her. But he froze with words stillborn in his throat at the sensation of metallic coldness. Blinking, he directed his gaze very carefully back at her. She was a goddess, wrath personified. And her instrument for smiting ignorant mortals appeared to be the very shiny, very large and _very_ sharp knife bumping gently against his nose.

Uh oh.

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**A/N:** First official chapter. Spring finals are over, and I have three weeks to take a breather and write more fanfiction before summer school start. Curses. Let's hope I'm diligent in maintain a writing streak. Please review and let me know what you think of this; reviews are the Energon to my Autobot, the sunlight to my plant, and /inserts other geeky analogies here. To all those who put this on Alert but don't review, I'm watching you. Heheh.

Also, I'm working on Someone Like You as well, it's just that it's coming slower because I have to force myself to see Sho-baka as an actual person rather than a bashing object. Need betas and cold readers for both this and that. If you're interested, please email me at xuewentohatgmaildotcom. Cheers.


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